Living in Australia

Relocating to Australia is a very sensible choice. Life in Australia is full of benefits for expats, apart from the obvious asset of the country’s beautiful nature. InterNations gives you an overview of housing, healthcare, education, and everything else you need to know about living in Australia.

Australia has a population of over 24 million people; the majority of the population is of European descent.

Although the mining boom has come to an end, the Australian economy has proven resilient transitioning into a tech-service oriented environment.

If you have a temporary visa, then you will need to obtain a private healthcare plan.

Attending school in Australia is compulsory from the age of 6 to 16; due to the high education standards in Australia, the majority of families opt for public schooling.

Why do so many people decide to apply for a visa and begin a new life in Australia? Listening to expats living in Australia — be it in the big cities like Perth or Melbourne, or in the Australian outback — they will all give you the same impression, Down Under has it all. The sixth-largest country in the world also has one of the lowest population densities worldwide. People living there have so much space that, if they chose to settle in all parts of the country other than the big cities, there would be around three inhabitants per square kilometer.

The country occupies the second place in the UN Human Development Index and ranks third in the 2014 Index of Economic Freedom. Life in Australia comes with a good education system, a high per-capita GDP, a low rate of poverty, and for the health conscious, a long-life expectancy.

Demographics

Of an estimated 24.36 million people living in Australia, the vast majority is still of European descent. This figure reflects the nation’s history as a European penal colony and the ongoing attraction it has on Europeans dreaming of a better life elsewhere.

These days, people living in Australia are of more diverse ethnic origins; according to the 2011 census, around 30% of the overseas-born residents came from Asia and Oceania. The most common ancestries are still British and Irish.

Of course, there were other ethnicities living in Australia before European immigration started. Indigenous Australians, having arrived from Southeast Asia, had been living in Australia for more than 50,000 years when the first Europeans set foot on the continent.

As in most instances of European settlers happening upon an indigenous civilization, the experience proved detrimental for the latter. The population of Aboriginals and Torre Strait Islanders experienced a sharp decline following colonization by the British. Today, only 3% of all people living in Australia are of indigenous origins.

Political Overview

The country is a constitutional monarchy. The residents of Australia are the subjects of Queen Elizabeth II in her role as Queen of Australia (not Queen of the United Kingdom). At the federal level, a Governor-General acts as her representative to the population. At state level, the Queen is represented by Governors.

The Commonwealth Parliament consists of an upper house and a lower house, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Moreover, each of the six states and two mainland territories has its own parliament, chosen by the electorate living in Australia. If you are thinking of moving to Australia, the local government websites will provide a wealth of information, from the visa process to fun daytrips.

We do our best to keep this article up to date. However, we cannot guarantee that the information provided is always current or complete.

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